Dark clouds are smouldering into red
While down the craters morning burns.
The dying soldier shifts his head
To watch the glory that returns;
He lifts his fingers toward the skies
Where holy brightness breaks in flame;
Radiance reflected in his eyes,
And on his lips a whispered name.

You'd think, to hear some people talk,
That lads go West with sobs and curses,
And sullen faces white as chalk,
Hankering for wreaths and tombs and hearses.
But they've been taught the way to do it
Like Christian soldiers; not with haste
And shuddering groans; but passing through it
With due regard for decent taste.
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
"Anthem for a Doomed Youth"

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
--Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
"Dulce et Decorum Est "

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under I green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, --
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Herbert Read (1893-1968)
"The Happy Warrior"

This is the happy warrior,
This is he...
W.N.Hodgson (1893-1916)
"Before Action"

By all the glories of the day
And the cool evening's benison,
By that last sunset touch that lay
Upon the hills where day was done,
By beauty lavisghly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
Make me a solider, Lord.
By all of man's hopes and fears,
And all the wonders poets...

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...Poetry can evoke a wide spectrum of emotions ranging from sadness to exultation through the poet's manipulation of the 5 primal senses; sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. This essay shall explore the emotive language used by Great War poets in order to evoke the senses in the reader, so that the more abstract issues in war can become tangible in those who are lucky enough to have never experienced battle.
"All forms of imaginative literature, including drama and film, follow the same principle, which can be summed up in the slogan, "Show, don't tell."" This quote definitely also applies to poetry, for it is often said that to directly tell the reader the tone or the imagery in poetry is heavy-handed. Wilfred Owen, in his poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est", uses imagery to brutal effect. "Bent double like old beggars under sacks" this simile brings to mind the poor, crippled, dirty beggar that has been through hardship after hardship. "Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning" This image of a man drowning under the horrific mustard gas employed in World War One is a powerful one, and makes the reader, who likely doesn't know of mustard gas, understand the horror Owen went through.
Siegfried Sassoon also used the Great War's terrible imagery in his poetry. In his poem "Prelude: The Troops" he uses short, simple descriptive words...

...Analyse the changing attitudes to war in the poems you have studied so far.
From studying “Peace,” by Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen’s two poems “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” and “Dulce et Decorum Est,” we have easily gained the knowledge of the changing attitudes to war. As Brooke’s poem encourages war, “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” states how undignified death at war is. While “Dulce et Decorum Est,” presents the horrific realities of war through its visual imagery.
Firstly it is easy for the reader to comprehend Brooke’s attitude to war through his poem “Peace.” As it becomes clear in the first line of the poem that Brooke is encouraging war as he states:
“Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping.”
Suggesting to the reader that before the war the men were not living fulfilled lives and they should be thankful that the war has given them a chance to prove themselves. He even indicates that:
“Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there.”
This illustrates that through war the men can atone for their past wrongdoings by defending their King and country. Through Brooke using a sonnet form he has strongly clarified his love for his country. Sonnets are typically used for and elevated form of poetry. This creates the impression that...

...How does Owen explore the themes of war through the power of his poetry?
Written by: vdg
How does Owen explore the themes of war through the power of his poetry?
Answer Q Owen expresses the themes of war through the unique power of poetry. Both the mental and physical brutality of war is emphasised in the poems, “The Send off,” “Anthem for doomed youth” and “Spring Offensive,” furthering the responder’s understanding of a soldier’s life on the western front. Owen employs various poetic devices such as imagery, symbolism and sound techniques, and powerful language features, together helping to convey the different aspects of war, such as the themes of ___ (maybe 4 main themes).
100 words on extract, linking to q
Wilfred Owen’s, “The send-off,” illustrates the consequences of war and reveals its cynical, secretive nature through the use of poetic devices. The title, “The Send-off,” depicts two different images about the nature of war. “Send-off” could be interpreted as a farewell to soldiers, in the hope of their return, or metaphorically could convey their literal fighting till death. The composer’s use of symbolism, “darkening lane,” portrays the sinister side of war, while the alliteration, “grimly gay,” creates irony. This depicts the soldiers’ hidden fear of going into battlefield, compared with their initial...

...readers. I will be answering this question with several references to my chosen composer and well known poet, Wilfred Owen.
Wilfred Owen is a World War One poet, with many poems such as Dulce Et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth, two very influential poems about different sides of the War. Owen was very skilled in his ability to engage the reader and to put across his point about his chosen subject.
In Dulce Et Decorum Est, Owen compares the realities of war with the old lie, how sweet and fitting it is too die, which was the view held by the English during World War One. . His criticism in this poem sends such a clear example of his opposition to patriotism, a stark contrast to other poems of the time. This poem recounts the vile experiences of the soldiers under a gas attack.
Through out this poem, the poet uses metaphors and similes to convey his message. These include, “like old beggars”, “coughing like hags” and “like a devils sick of sin”. This helps to provide a visual idea of what the war was like.
For Owen to put across his message he uses many techniques including irony, which is played in a big part of this poem. The title is ironic, and is in fact a quotation from the ancient roman poet, Horace. In translation, it reads, how sweet and fitting it is to die for ones country.
However, Owen see’s war as anything but beautiful or dignified in the way that death...

...Prompt: “War is futile” Discuss in relation to Owen’s poems (Ducle and Anthem for Doomed Youth).
Wilfred Owen once wrote, “All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.” Owen’s poetry on war can be described as a passionate outrage over the horrors of war and pity for the young soldiers sacrificed in it. By combining gruesome images, effective similes and a range of other poetic techniques Owen evokes an appalling picture that war is futile because soldiers were dying meaninglessly. These messageswere sent to his readers through many of his poems including “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Futility” which also negate the idea of war and show war’s brutality and uselessness.
In “Anthem for Doomed Youth” Owen reveals to his audience that war is useless as the soldiers were dying senselessly. The very title “Anthem for Doomed Youth” with anthems usually being associated with love and passion is very deliberately ironic. Owen uses the word “Youth” to remind the reader that these soldiers were only young men, with their whole lives ahead of them but their lives have now been ruined pointless due to the futility war. The poem starts off at a quick pace, and then continues to decelerate throughout the poem, drawing to slow; solemn and somber close, which creates the picture of horrendous mass burial and butchery...

...
Wilfred Owens collection of letters and poetry can be seen as incredibly insightful accounts of the experiences of war. Owens dramatic personal transformation is evident in the evolution of his writing due his surrounding influences such as Sassoon, and his experiences with war, and it is in this change of writing we witness the way in which war and its barbaric conditions can utterly transform a man. It is this notion which Owen attempts to convey through his writing, and the accumulation of personal experiences translated into imagery, and language devices and techniques such as alliteration, onomatopoeia and personification is what expresses the truly abominable and melancholic nature of war.
A common theme which runs throughout Owens pieces are the descriptions and references to the physical conditions and environments of war that made it so frenetic and clamorous. Owen uses oxymorons such as “ a waterfall of slime” in Dulce et Decorum Est, to provide the reader with something relatable, which we view as pure and free, and contaminates it with the foul effects of war in order to provide us some basis of beginning to understand the conditions of war. Whilst Owen makes clear that no person can truly appreciate the futility of war unless they experienced it first hand, he attempts to put a twist on things that are relatable, to evoke as...

...Human beings have been fighting in wars for thousands of years, yet the horrific and life changing events that come along with war are still not anything a soldier, no matter how brave, can prepare for. Soldiers are expected to do what they are told and keep their emotions to themselves. Keeping these emotions inside can be the hardest part of war, and for some, their biggest fear is showing they are actually afraid. In the poems “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke, and “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, the authors have two very different views of war. Rupert Brooke, who never experienced war himself, writes patriotic poems and glorifies dying in honor of one’s country. In contrast, Wilfred Owen, who started writing poetry as part of his therapy for shell shock, writes about the senseless killing and traumatic events he and many other soldiers faced.
In the famous poem “The Soldier”, Rupert Brooke captures the sense of love for ones country. Rather than focusing on the horrors of war and dying in battle, the author glorifies fighting for England, which is personified as a mother figure in the following passage.
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. (9-14)
Brooke uses words that have positive connotations, such as...

...poets I have identified to affect both feelings and thoughts through warpoetry are Rupert Brooke with his pre- world war one poem ‘Soldier’ and Wilfred Owen through his poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’. Both poems were written with the aim of affecting reader’s views towards the war, but the contrast between the two is unmistakeable.
All throughout ‘Soldier’, Rupert Brooke is emphasising the superiority of the English nation. The words “If I shall die think only this of me; that there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England” link to the idea that readers have an obligation to fight and possibly die for their country, because it is portrayed by Brooke that England is superior to other countries. The tone of this poem relates to the views people had near the beginning of the war and was used by the government to recruit many young men into the English army.
Brooke uses many methods in ‘Soldier’ to advertise to young men reasons for joining the army. ‘And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, in hearts at peace, under an English heaven.” This quote has many positive connotations associated with it, causing the reader to feel and think as though the war is a positive experience. Because of the way Brooke depicted the war, many young men saw joining the army as an appealing opportunity to fight heroically for one’s country. Whereas this idea of what...